visor

Dun mind me borrowing your thread... I'm looking for chaeto too... anyone got any to spare/sell do let me know.

i always like to observe how they conduct their little tricks... kinda fun. for example, those ppl on the street that came up to you, do a little survey & then ask you to scratch a lucky draw card - first they took a card from the top of the stack & give it to me. so I scratched it & was told I won a voucher. then they asked my wifey to try her luck too, with a sleight of hand, they told another card but this time from the bottom of the stack. after my wifey scratched it was told she won a few thousands dollar holiday trip! the guy that we met can really act, & was jumping up & down on the street saying that we are luckiest couple that day. told us to meet him at a hotel later... to shake them off just told them ok & forget about it. don't give them any tel number... the latest toyota one try to entice & convince you with so many different reasons. first they say it's a prize presentation ceremony. John Dykes of ESPN will be there (for those into EPL should know who). The letter that you received should have his face in the photos. Well, actually I almost wanted to go just to chat with John. Then they say that you are in a special group that will win 4 of the top prices, you just have to go & match the number. Their computer already pre-selected you to win that. They will try to be as genuine as possible - the toyota is provided by borneo motor & you can collect yours from them if you win. Notice that 'you won' now became 'if you win'. The other top prizes supposed to be a 42" plasma tv, a notebook computer & a diamond watch. Seems very good isn't it if if I don't get the car. when I probed further everything began to fall apart - noticed that in your letter you are supposed to pay some administrative/shipping charges to collect the prizes. So I ask why can't I just collect the 42" plasma from the local agent. They then told me that they have "to import the TV from overseas & it will takes 2-3 weeks". OK, never mind the TV. Then I ask what is the brand of the diamond watch valued at $5K. Guess what was the answer? "It's some swiss brand, I can't pronounce the name". :) That's the catch, you are most definitely going to win this swiss diamond watch with some unpronouncable name probably made in shenzhen, probably come with a certificate too. i was so free that day, i actually chatted for half an hour. they always have an answer to all my questions. I think the telemarketeer was desperate to earn her $50 for each person who turn up. they even say things like "I will be there, if you don't win anything you can complain about me on the spot". to get them off the line, i just made an appointment for the next day. someone else called me 3 more times to confirm the appointment, guess must be the supervisor or something. They called it "courtesy call to reconfirm the appointment by the director". The last call was about 5 min after the appointment time, this time they were starting to lose their patience & was quite rude in demanding whether I will be there or not. well, that was the story. I find it a fascinating industry, how persistent they are, & how well they covered up themselves with fineprints & loopholes here & there to avoid any legal problem. gotta apply it in some other businesses. i'm sure you guys have plenty more stories... cheers

Confirm Holiday Tour membership. They will call you up after a few day. They called up & I just chatted with them to see what gimmick they used nowadays. They are very well trained now, I shoot them 1001 questions, they have well prepared answer to all of them. I'm impressed! Now, they even dare to say that they are licensed by S'pore Totalister Board, Police CID for the lucky draw, etc. And challenged me to check. Also, the company is even listed on S'pore Tourism Board website. They also said things like 'will it make you feel better if I am to tell you not to bring a single cents or cheque book with you?'. But before they hung up, they will remind you to bring your credit card for verification. Actually, it's not completely a 'con'. You just have to remember NOT to sign anything. You will definitely get something at the end of the 'high pressure selling session'. They will give you some vouchers, etc - it's their marketing cost. But don't take those stupid travel vouchers or gift vouchers. You will need to pay some administrative fees upfront first, which make it a complete bullshit. Make a scene & try to get a makan voucher of something. Last time, I got some $50 long beach cash voucher that is really valid & no minimum purchase. Spend 2 hours for $50, quite worth it lah. I've seen ppl making a scene before the 'meeting' at the entrance, just to get the free gift without attending the session. Another way is to go down without your spouse, they won't go ahead without your spouse because ppl will make excuses that they need to check with their wife. Maybe, go & be nasty - bring a stop watch & put on the table while they talk, ask them how long is their presentation, when time's up, ask them for the gifts & leave. It's actually quite an experience to sit through one of this session. But once is enough. Just remember, DON'T SIGN ANYTHING & PAY ANYTHING! Cut your credit card into 2 if you have too

No. Prizm is pretty low power - I don't have the figure off-hand. Don't confuse Prizm design with other skimmer - flow rate, etc don't apply here as it is a self-contained unit. Of course pls also note that Prizm is suitable for Nano only ~2ft or less.

Yes, external pump! No extra pump necessary. Well, you can always try to get a 2nd hand one for < $100. I got one in the storeroom, PM me if interested. Remora is great too if not for the price.

Get a Red Sea Prizm... great for nano.

if u r worry about burden then can forget about the big cc car... just a nice 'jazzed up' honda jazz would be cool... $900 a month should be enough for monthly installment (~70% loan) + petrol... of course will exclude other maintenance + road tax + parking... parking can be a killer. imho... since u r still young & no kid, go for a 'selfish' car - get a 2 seater coupe, roadster, cabrio... whatever. unless u see yourself owning more than 1 car, u only got 2 chance to drive that - before u have kids or 20 yrs later after ur kids have grown up, else u will be driving a saloon or mpv. but an uncle driving a mr-spyder, hmm... looks kinda funni.

black rav4 with a moon-roof red mazda 3 5-door hot-hatch! - forget about saloon. bmw 1-series - dun really like the look but it's a 'ultimate driving machine'... new merc a-class coming in soon too... check out last saturday paper - talking about new models coming in soon...

dun think so... ipod is actually done by a company called 'PortalPlayer', check out the article here. apple & steve jobs mainly worked on the aesthetics... btw... check out this very cool product coming soon from olympus (yes, the camera maker is making mp3 player)... m:robe opps...

PMed you... I have the maxiskim 200

L35 Blk D have some last Sat. I bought a small frag... Looks quite similar to what bro YzF has...

1/4 is about 1250 actually... for specs go to Daeil Website or Arctica Website . Arctica & Daeil are identical.

there is this place selling live seafood along pasir panjang road near NUS (junction of clementi road & pasir panjang road - the row of shophouses that include the famous fong seng nasi lemak place, cheese prata shop, etc). always see people buying live swimming fishes there (those for makan type). maybe you can check with them, they should know some suppliers... btw, closes on monday.

just to share... i have a kid who is in one of the private childcare center at my wife's working place. she has been there since 2.5 yrs old. before that she was being taken care by my mum-in-law, but we decided to send her to childcare to improve on her social development aspect. the improvement is really amazing even at such a young age. she was a lot better in communicating & interacting with her friends. she also become so discipline & independent - going to toilet by herself, eat all by herself, etc as compared to my 2 other nieces, 1 & 2 yrs older, who are attending PAP kindergarden. so I definitely agreed with your points & I have a real example here. but being kid, from time to time, of course they still behave like any other kids... however, selecting a good childcare center is quite important actually, we are lucky that the one at my wife's workplace is quite good. some criteria that we feel are important are - children to teacher ratio for the younger children, they really need a lot of attention. make sure the ratio is good, 5 to 1 would be ideal for playgroup level. - curriculum or the lack of it i understand your wife concern that "PAP school standard" is better than other. the problem with that statement is that i do hear that PAP kindergarden do tend to be very academic focus, i.e. preparing the kids for primary school. but please... these are young kids, they should be given more room to learn from playing & not forced to learn. from what I know that are 2 "curriculums" out there - PAP one which is quite focus to teaching student to learn, & the MCDS one which is more focus on getting the child to learn from playing... my kid enjoys learning from having fun in school. she do "projects" in school, work on handicrafts at home with the parents during weekend, bring the "homeworks" to school on monday for "show & tell", etc. there are no such things like bring homework/worksheets home. she is really enjoying herself there... - the school environment this is something that I heard from friends. try finding a school with open space & non air-conditioned environment. these places normally quite expensive, like pat's schoolhouse, maris stella, etc. quite good in term of hygiene, lower chances of spreading of virus as compared to those air-con places. unfortunately, being in an office building, my kid's school is fully air-con. sometimes, virus tend to spread faster. the choice is yours actually. talk to your wife, go down to some of these childcare center for a visit (they do have open house from time to time), talk to the teachers, understand their approach in teaching the kids, etc sorry can't help you in your selection of either PAP or NTUC... but I am a believer of full-day childcare as compare to babysitter. but make sure you spend some quality time with every night & weekends...

i got eheim 25/34 at clementi florist about 2-3 weeks back... not sure if they still have it. you might want to check with them...

try mega discount store... you can normally see their ads on Saturday paper. they are at united sq & katong mall... the boss over there is damn aggressive, those kind of guy that cannot lose out to other competitor. definitely cheaper than the b*** d**** jap store - for example for the 42" plasma, certain models is around $500 to $1K cheaper than b*** d****. But b*** d**** used to offer 2% discount for UOB card holder, not sure if the promotion is still on. as for audio h****, my opinion is that except for some promotional items, the rest of the stuffs is about std price available elsewhere. Also, if you want to buy from reputed store, the last I know, har*** nor*** actually promised to match any other ppl prices. However, if you really want the best price & not worry about whether it is a reputed store or not, head down to your neighbourhood store, you can bargain till the price is better than anybody else due to their low overhead. I heard one of the shop over at Alexander Village is not bad, but you must know how to bargain lah. Another tip - make sure you ask for price WITH GST right at the beginning, some store will give you a damn good price, but when you pay then they tell you need to add another 5%. just my 2 'bits'...

i think the problem with buying a car in states is getting the insurance... especially when you are not local... might be wrong... was in states some 10 years ago. anyway you can always rent from the cheaper guys... avis, herts will be damn ex... try going for corporate weekly rate. yup... driving is fun... did san frans -> vegas -> grand canyon... shiok! especially when the HUGE truck overtakes you while you are already doing 100+ mph (not kmh)... those were the days...

would love to get them but moving to new place next month, don't think I want to carry 50kg to my current place first & then move to the new place later. hmm... maybe can ask the house mover to move my live rock as well nah... better not. let bro glare keep them first, if by then still available will be cured for another extra month. seem like lots of ppl selling live rock, you too right, dan?

hi weileong, from my rough estimate, with the 10cm space from top of the baffle, should have some 35liter extra capacity. back flow from return should be minimal if the return pipe is on the surface right? Skimmer... hmm not sure, currently thinking of starting with h&s first. maybe go to beckett later, how much backflow is it from a 3ft beckett? do you think I should make the sump higher, say another 5cm? thanks for the advice!

Tanzy, will do. one extra secondary return will be added!

looking for advice & comments on sump design below. it's quite a standard design I think - 3 compartments - skimmer, refugium & return chamber. just not sure if the baffles are ok & also the heights of each compartment is enough or too much. thanks a lot!

hi blueheaven, i am thinking of doing the same, need some advise from you - 1. how the return flow rate like? good? 2. where does your chiller output go to? back to the sump? or is your chiller placed in-line with your return? i.e. sump->chiller->main tank???

i want... i want... but my new tank only ready end of july if you still have any by then, maybe i will take 50kg

dun think it's due to anemone... mine have some of these black patches as well quite a while back, no anemone in my tank. don't worry too much, it will go away after some time.

count me in as number 3... is that good enough response yet for you to build some, joe?